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The Political Unity Spectrum: a Theory of Left- Right Politics, from Liberalism to Emancipatory Progressivism

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The Political Unity Spectrum: a Theory of Left- Right Politics, from Liberalism to Emancipatory Progressivism Değerlendirme Makalesi LAÜ Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi (X-I): 91-105 THE POLITICAL UNITY SPECTRUM: A THEORY OF LEFT- RIGHT POLITICS, FROM LIBERALISM TO EMANCIPATORY PROGRESSIVISM SĠYASĠ BĠRLĠK SPEKTRUMU: LĠBERALĠZM’DEN ÖZGÜRCÜ ĠLERLEMECĠLĠĞE, SOL-SAĞ POLĠTĠKA TEORĠSĠ Amin SADEGHI European University of Lefke MA International Relations Student [email protected] ORCID ID:0000-0001-7143-0786 Received 26 February 2019-Accepted 25 April 2019 Gönderim 26 Şubat 2019-Kabul 25 Nisan 2019 Abstract: While political ideologies are often portrayed along a liberal–conservative continuum in the United States and a left–right continuum in Europe, their universal applicability is questionable. The switch between left and right, and the nature of what is being conserved in the US for the former, conflating left and leftism for the latter, and the differing aspects of the words „liberal‟ and „liberalism‟ make it confusing to authors to devise similar continuums for other countries. The Political Unity Spectrum offers a visual abstraction of universalistic left-right politics under four types of political unity as well as suggesting that moving between these confines is possible. Using this abstraction, the positions of Turkey and Iran are defined, while also answering the following political questions: (1) how failing to maintain political cohesion could lead to civil wars; (2) how left and right switched places in the US; (3) how both left and right in the US and in Europe are left-wing in Turkey and in Iran; (4) the difference between liberalism and progressivism. Keywords: Left-right politics; partisanship; liberalism; public opinion; the Overton Window of Political Possibilities Öz: Siyasi ideolojiler, Amerika BirleĢik Devletleri'ndeki liberal-muhafazakâr/tutucu bir süreklilik ve Avrupa'da sol-sağ bir süreklilik boyunca sıklıkla tasvir edilirken, evrensel uygulanabilirlikleri sıklıkla sorgulanmaktadır. Sol ve sağ arasındaki geçiĢ ve ABD'de eskisi için neyin korunduğunun niteliği, sol ve solculuğu birleĢtiren ve “liberal” ve “liberalizm” kelimelerinin farklı yönleri yazarların diğer ülkeler için de benzer süreklilik göstermesini kafa karıĢtırıcı kılar. Siyasi Birlik Spektrumu, dört tür siyasi birlik altında evrensel sol sağ politikanın görsel bir özetini sunar ve bu sınırlar arasında hareket etmenin mümkün olduğunu ileri sürer. Bu soyutlamayı/ ozeti kullanarak, aĢağıdaki siyasi soruları cevaplarken, Türkiye ve Ġran'ın konumu tanımlanmıĢtır: (1) Siyasi uyumu korumaktaki baĢarısızlık nasıl iç savaĢlara neden olabilir; (2) ABD'de sol ve sağin nasıl yer değiĢtirdigi; (3) ABD'de ve Avrupa'da hem sol hem de sağin Türkiye ve Ġran'da nasil sol gorus oldugu; (4) liberalizm/hur fikirlilik ve ilericilik arasındaki fark. Anahtar Kelimeler: Sol-sağ politika, partizanlik, liberalizm, kamuoyu, Overton Penceresinden Siyasi Olanaklar LAÜ Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi (X-I) EUL Journal of Social Sciences Haziran 2019 June 92 | The Political Unity Spectrum: A Theory of Left-Right Politics, From Liberalism to Emancipatory Progressivism INTRODUCTION Although free participation of the public, government responsiveness, and competition amongst political elites shape democracies (Dahl, 1971), informed individuals with consistent views of abstract political terms and values are rare (Zaller, 1992). Accordingly, people generally look up to partisan elites for cues to acquire and form opinions on various issues. Even the most aware citizens, who have widened their range of understanding, fall consistently within one party‟s definitions or another‟s. Thus, shaping or framing (Chong & Druckman, Framing Theory, 2007) public opinion for the well aware and the inconsistent alike becomes possible in democracies. Another study showed that the public ends up not with policies they wanted but with those framed to appear so (Chong & Druckman, 2007). Besides framing, use of social and economic shocks is another possible tactic to change the narrative and the minds of citizens. The Overton Window (Lehman, 2010) was developed in the mid-1990s by Joseph P. Overton to demonstrate a window of acceptable ideas at the centre of a spectrum of ideas that goes both to the left and to the right. The spectrum did not deal with left-right politics but with a degree of freedom, with one side freer and freer, and the other, stricter and stricter. Shifts in opinion are, then, materialised, less likely when a “radical” or “ridiculous” idea presented, since the public are sitting in their comfort zones, but rather when an “unthinkable” idea is presented. The shock shatters inertia, and makes the public perceive that a lesser provocative idea is acceptable. With significant increases in the availability of information on the internet, the relation between citizens and their representatives in the political arena is being transformed. The Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal (Davies, 2015) showed that public opinion continues to be shaped and framed, at even higher efficiency levels, using microtargeting (Gage, 2003). Since the abundance of evidence, collected by professionals and grassroots movements, make despotism an arduous act, politics has transformed accordingly. If every “truth” has its rebuttals, then framing emotions is a more viable alternative than framing truths. The phenomenon, with the fitting name of post-truth politics, marks the supremacy of ideologies that blind people from all the evidence present (McIntyre, 2018). In retrospect, what then is keeping societies from collapsing, if truths are plenty? The Political Unity Spectrum suggests that keeping the political discourse within one of the four political unity confines, increases political and social cohesion. The narrative, if unchecked, increases the possibility of civil wars. Notwithstanding the inadequacies that left-right analyses carry, they have had meaningful changes in our understanding of issues such as political representation, coalition formation, government spending priorities, and party competition (Huber & Inglehart, 1995). As moving to left, on these spectrums, correlates with decentralisation of power, a tipping point has historically shown a reversal in this trend. At this point, moving further to the left requires collective action, which is a reversal in government size. Political parties that have realised the limits of freedom at this point, have remained to protect it. The rival parties, formerly right-wing, inevitably – as they cannot promote a closer society – move farther left and surpass the incumbent position of freedom. Traditional spectrums show moving left means more freedom, but never differentiate between “freedom with responsibility” and LAÜ Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi (X-I) EUL Journal of Social Sciences Haziran 2019 June Amin Sadeghi | 93 “freedom from responsibility.” Historically, moving far to the left can cause political parties switch places. For example, left-wing views in France shortly after the French Revolution became right-wing views. The revolution had taken freedom into heightened levels beyond control. An absence of governance showed not to increase freedom, but to cause havoc. Similarly, dispute over the New Deal in the United States caused the left-wing Republicans become the new right, and the right-wing Democrats, the new left. Previous attempts at visualising continuums where the farthest right is authoritarian and the farthest left is liberal democracies lose their adequacy as the New Left proposes “more inclusive” forms of governance for the United States (US) and the European Union (EU). With the rise of populism, it is believed that the new forms of leadership are either “populist nationalist” or “populist socialist” (Bannon, 2018). Socialism, in this sense, is the defence of emancipatory ideals that define „the people‟ vis-à-vis „the elites.‟ On the other hand, nationalism, according to this view, omits to separate „regional value systems‟ from the horrendous acts committed in the name of „ethnic nationalism.‟ Not differentiating between these political structures or their ideological views, to think that Conservatives in the US are defending ethnic nationalism, shows the lack of a proper mental representation for the people to understand the developments in political philosophy. The relative peace times we live in, after half a century of Cold War between two ideologies, is history for us to learn from. The Political Unity Spectrum offers four types of Political Unity, three of which have proved to be working political confines, regardless of their degree of freedom. The point where Western countries stand, differs from a handful of other countries; even those that are imitating the liberal democracy model. Since a left- right continuum in Turkey, for example, bears no similarities to its European counterparts, Yılmaz et al. moved on to Moral Foundations Theory (Haidt, Graham, & Joseph, 2009) to explain a political ideologies continuum for Turkey (Yılmaz, Sarıbay, Bahçekapılı, & Harma, 2016). It never occurred to them to define a spectrum based on a nationalist Kemalist Republic to which there is a liberal left, a socialist far left, and a dogmatic right that could embody principles of political Islam. On a similar note, Öniş notes that social democracy is not on the left-of-centre of Turkish politics, and that the Republican People‟s Party (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi, CHP) alongside the Nationalist Action Party (Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi, MHP) are nationalist, with mercantilist views on economics. He uses the label „defensive nationalism‟ to denote to these political
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